The final five members of a young football team were rescued from a flooded Thai cave on Tuesday after spending 18 harrowing days trapped deep inside, completing an astonishing against-the-odds rescue mission that captivated the world, reports AFP from  Mae Sai, Thailand. Elite foreign divers and Thai Navy SEALs extracted the final batch of four boys, plus the 25-year-old coach, on Tuesday afternoon via a treacherous escape route that required them to squeeze in darkness through narrow, water-filled tunnels.

"All 12 'Wild Boars' and coach have been extracted from the cave," the SEALs said in a Facebook post, referring to the boys by the name of their football team.

"All are safe," they added, then signed off with what has become their trademark "Hooyah" that they used to celebrate the successful extractions of the other eight boys over the previous two days. The children, aged 11-16, and their coach, ventured into the Tham Luang cave in mountainous northern Thailand on June 23 after football practice and got trapped when heavy rains caused flooding that forced them to take shelter on a muddy ledge. They spent nine days in darkness until two British divers found them, looking gaunt but offering smiles to the divers  and appearing to be in remarkably good spirits.